Camping

We went camping as a family for the first time this past weekend to celebrate my son's 8th birthday. Advice: don't choose a 100 degree day for your first camping trip! Advice Two: Make sure your wife actually brings the tent you are supposed to sleep in!!

One of the amenities this camp site had, yes, amenities, there must be some, was what they called a comfort station. Let's just say that a shower after 12 hours of 100 degrees makes the name comfort station seem too inadequate to express the relief one can find from cold running water. Being in the water, at the comfort station brought a profound thought to me. Am I a comfort station to people around me? I began to think of all the people I come in contact with every day, strangers, acquaintances, and friends alike...is my presence refreshing, rejuvenating, comforting? It should be. Jesus certainly was. If you were within His reach, their was comfort to be had. I want my life to be that, don't you?

So, back to the tent...did I mention that my wife packed the tent she was sleeping in? It was four person tent, just the right size for mom and the three children! I slept out under the night sky, sounds chivalrous doesn't it! Amazingly, there were no bugs, still can't figure that one out. I'm counting it towards divine intervention! It actually wasn't that bad until I was awakened by a noise of some sort. Since it was a full moon, you didn't feel too terribly vulnerable. You could see quite well. There at the foot of my air mattress, yes we did have air mattresses, unfortunately not tempurpedic!, was a raccoon I'm quite certain was big enough to star in a movie entitled, "The Raccoon That Ate Lake Anna State Park." It was massive. I hurled some rocks at that didn't seem to phase it at all. I then reached for my aluminum bat, yes, that along with an air mattress are a great comfort combo, and my flashlight. I had this picture of being stitched up in the Emergency Room telling the attendant, "...well you see, there was this raccoon..." He shuffled away as I stood up...more came later throughout the night however, one actually opened our cooler! I'm sure those campsites are a buffet throughout the year for the raccoon population there. I got me thinking though. What kind of critters do have in my life? Have I grown accustomed to, tolerating, gotten used to, anything in my life that is robbing me. Maybe it seems harmless, maybe it seems not too terribly threatening, maybe even a little humorous, but ultimately a consuming presence. Holy Spirit, is there anything like that in me?

My last reflection from our trip was that they had comment cards to fill out. Cards on which you could make suggestions, share ideas, give feedback. If we had one of those attached to us, open to anyone who may want to take one and pass on some thoughts to us, about us, what would they write? What would we find characterizes us? How would others define us? We can learn a lot about ourselves through the experiences of others who are with us. Maybe you know some friends who would be willing to do something like this for you. Make up some comment cards...heck "borrow" one from somewhere and copy it. Ask some close friends to fill it out and be honest in what they write. One of the great gifts of friendship is the voice it is into our lives, revealing our blind spots, making it possible for us to change...Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, "Be ye therefore perfect." We won't ever get all the way there, but let's endeavor to get closer and closer throughout our days.

Pastor Fred

Providence

My intellectual affair with Pascal has come to an end...do you ever feel that way? Do you sometimes get frustrated with your inability to finish so many books? I know this plagues me! But I am learning to appreciate the impact and benefit I get out of however much I read, whatever progress I make. I think we all struggle with our puritanical drive to always finish what we started. Life is too short to expend our energy and emotion finishing things that don't ultimately matter. So, be free! If a book stops speaking life into, stops being as enjoyable as it once was, put it down! Make sure your perseverance reservoir is reserved for following through on more eternally significant fronts, like your family relationships, your commitment to spiritual disciplines, your devotion to your local church...let these things be the benefactor of your perseverance reservoir when enthusiasm seems to wane, let your unfailing follow through be given to what truly matters!

Your God given destiny is another worthy recipient of your unwavering determination. Did you know that God is not just the God of the details of this universe, but He is equally the God of the details of your life. He has a perfect plan for your life and feeling of deep meaning, purpose, and significance will be forever elusive until you find a sense of confidence that you are in the middle of your destiny. This idea of providence is believing that God is intentional, directive, active, not passive, not lackadaisical about the intricate details of this world. And only this world but our individual lives. He is orchestrating the elements of of our moments to lead and direct us into a specific future.

If these thoughts are foreign to you, let me recommend a book to you that I am about to use in taking a couple of small groups of men through. The book is entitled "Finding Your Greater Yes" by Dan Erickson. He has a ministry called "People Matter Ministries." You could Google that to find out more about him. I have had the privilege of hearing him speak a couple times and one of the things I so appreciate about Dan is that he just doesn't get us excited about our destiny, what he calls our "greater yes" but he shows us how to determine it and then run after it! You don't want to miss your "greater yes!"

This 4th of July weekend I am reminded of all of this because our founding fathers and mothers understood that God of this universe was the God of their individual lives that they had a role in history, in fact, that as they gave themselves fully to their personal destinies, together, they would be fulfilling God broader destiny for a nation, a nation that had and has a destiny in this universe. Wow! Imagine! God sees you and I, personally and individually as indispensable contributors to His great, grand, and eternal plan for eternity!

I hope you take the time to watch this 7 minute media clip for how our nation came to have a National Anthem. In it, like it did for me, you will be reminding that you too have a story, maybe it will never be written in history books, but it will be recorded in the books of heaven. You have a part to play in this world, a vital part, a necessary part, an essential part. Don't miss it!

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Have a Jesus Filled 4th!
Pastor Fred